Cardinals Notebook: Players can relate to Coach McGwire

PORT ST. LUCIE — A few hours before the St. Louis Cardinals played the New York Mets on Saturday, Mark McGwire stood outside the hitting cages underneath Digital Domain Park with a black bat in his right hand.

While he retired more than a decade ago and his red goatee has faded to grey, the 6-foot-4 McGwire still is in shape and looks as if he could easily step into the batter's box.

But the 48-year-old is more than content to stand outside the mesh cage and coach the Cardinals hitters.

And they listen.

"There's no question that when you have a guy who had as much success at the big league level as he did, he had such a great career, when he says something you want to pay attention," Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman said. "He's been doing this a long time and guys instantly respect him. They want to know what he has to say."

McGwire was hired as the Cardinals hitting coach by longtime manager Tony LaRussa in 2010 and was retained by new manager Mike Matheny when LaRusaa retired late last year.

"I wouldn't say it's a seamless transition," McGwire said of going from player to coach. "One, it's a lot more work. Two, especially being a hitting coach, there's very rare times that every hitter's feeling good. There's always two or three guys that feel like crap and its constant reinforcement — positive reinforcement to everybody.

"This game is psychological at this stage in the big leagues. We always try to fine tune whatever they have mechanically, but just see the ball stay in the strike zone and the next day you can go in the cage and work on things."

Before joining the Cardinals coaching staff, McGwire worked as a private hitting instructor for a handful of professional players, including current Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday.

LaRussa said McGwire had an innate ability to communicate with players.

"If a coach has good knowledge, there's an art to translating or expressing it in a way that makes it clear to the players that you're listening, that you care about them, that it's not about you," La Russa told ESPN last spring. "He's got that art.

"Most stars don't have patience. They forget that it's not about them. But he's got something very solid, very basic to offer, and he has the passion. That's why I was really confident he would be good at this."

As a player, McGwire was best known for his home runs. The slugger hit 538 in his career and, along with Sammy Sosa, captured the nation's attention in the summer of 1998 when he hit a then-record 70 home runs.

McGwire later admitted to using steroids on-and-off for a decade during his 16-year career.

He said there's no difference through between speaking to Berkman (358 career home runs) or shortstop Rafael Furcal, who hasn't hit more than nine home runs since 2006.

"Hitting is hitting as far as I'm concerned," McGwire said. "As far as being a power hitter, that's all God-given. The thing is, you try to hit a baseball the same way, it doesn't matter if you're a singles/doubles hitter or if you're a home run hitter. You've got to get the bat through the zone, you have to keep it through the zone and square up the ball.

"Hitting is hitting, you just have to fine-tune the mechanics to where you have more time to hit it."